ACW

Saturday, 12 November 2016

What We Mean By Jerusalem

Today is Remembrance Sunday.We’ll stand by the Cenotaph - probably whipped by a biting wind – and vow
to remember ‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning’ those who died in
war.We long for a time when, not only
are there no wars, no Aleppos, Mosuls or no refugees on rickety boats, but no
poverty and no injustice.William Blake
writes of building our own Jerusalem,
a place where there is peace and love and enough of everything to go round,
somewhere where God is glorified.

McDonalds in Nazareth

Jerusalem Market

I’ve been to the real Jerusalem - less than two weeks ago,
so it’s all very fresh in my mind.Our
holiday in Israel was not a pilgrimage, but we found ourselves travelling
alongside many committed Christians.We
visited Nazareth.We took a boat across
the Sea of Galilee, where we dropped anchor and, in the sudden stillness after
the boat engines had been turned off, read from the Bible.After visiting where the Sermon on the Mount
and the Feeding of the Five Thousand were said
to have taken place (no one is absolutely sure), we looked at the ancient town
of Capernaum, then drove alongside the Dead Sea, and on to Jerusalem itself,
where we watched dark suited Jews, ringlets dropping beneath their black crown
hats, celebrate Shabbat at the Western
Wall.Throughout our time there, Psalm
122 was resonating through my mind:

I was glad when they said unto me:

We will go into the house of the Lord.

Our feet shall stand in thy gates: O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city: that is at unity in itself.

Jerusalem Rooftops

Unfortunately, Jerusalem is anything but at unity in itself. We had, repeatedly, to go through security checkpoints,
including at the Western Wall, and, during our stay, there was a minor incident
in the city, causing massive traffic jams.When we crossed into Zone A (Palestinian-governed territory), Eric, our
amazing Jewish guide, was forbidden by law to join us, so another guide,
Ibrahim, accompanied us to Bethlehem and the fields where the angel brought
‘glad tidings of great joy’ to the shepherds.Ibrahim, one of only thirteen thousand beleaguered Palestinian
Christians, found it moving and reassuring when we sang ‘While Shepherds
Watched’ there.

The Garden Tomb

Car in Bethlehem - Look out for the Fish!

On the way back from Bethlehem, our bus driver got lost in the
city which was ‘not least… in Judah’, winding through narrow streets with sharp
turns, his way blocked by building sites (aka heaps of stony rubble), rubbish
paladins inhabited by cats - and the wall the Israelis have built to keep the
Palestinians out.My husband kept
asking, “How can we possibly sing ‘O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see
thee lie’?”

The real Bethlehem isn’t still
and the real Jerusalem isn’t atunity, but the hope, of peace and love,
which they signify, has become greater than the actual places.We must hang on to it, especially on
Remembrance Sunday.

Rosemary Johnson

Rosemary Johnson has had short stories published in online and in print, but currently is concentrating on editing a historical novel. Rosemary has a blog, Write On, but it's undergoing a refurb at present.